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Visiting GDMC from the US: PHONE
Visiting GDMC from the US: PHONE Buying a cheap phone overseas. Although this may not be worth it for short trips, if you will be in China extensively or will be returning repeatedly, you can get a phone along with a prepaid minutes (no monthly fees) SIM card for about $50. Incoming calls and texts are always free and do not cost you minutes, normal calls are about 0.1 RMB/min as of April 2012. If you get a China Mobile number you can have CMCC unlimited wifi (as of April 2012 but subject to change), but for China Unicom accounts this is not included UPDATE: I think it's included but I've never seen one of their wifi access points pop up near GDMC. There are a couple of shops selling phones near Bank of China so you can kill two birds with one stone. Unlocking a phone rather than buying a new one. If you already have an unlocked phone, you can just get a SIM card in any country you visit (except for Sprint branded US phones which do not use removable SIM cards so it's physically impossible), and easily keep your same smartphone but use a low local rate for calls texts and data, which is nicer than paying extra for a flip phone you'll never use at home. Unfortunately, if you're uncertain whether your phone is locked, it's definitely locked- that is, it has been disabled inside the software by your carrier from working with other SIM cards although it is capable of doing so. The good news is you have some options for unlocking your phone. Option 1: Due to a series of losses in court cases, your US carrier cannot refuse to give you the unlock code for your phone after a set period of time, usually 10 months but it varies by carrier and which specific case they lost. When you insert a SIM card other than the one that came with it, your phone will ask you for a "SIM network unlock code" before it will be useable as a phone with the new SIM card. DO NOT GUESS what the code might be. You can call or online chat with your US carrier's support (ideally before leaving the US). They will definitely be as disingenuous as they believe they can be, depending on how much you seem to know, but will provide you with your SIM network unlock code if you meet the requirements and listen to their stonewalling long enough (estimated stonewalling time: 30 minutes and up once you reach an operator). Then you just type it in once and your phone is good to go with any overseas SIM card forever after that. If you ignored my suggestions above and tried to guess more than 3 or 4 times, your phone will permanently lock itself to your carrier's network and refuse to unlock even with the code after that. Your carrier support will swear that this is somehow etched into the silicon of the phone and irrevocable. It's not; see below. Option 2: Same as option 1, but there are a number of internet businesses that will charge you about 8 bucks via paypal to email you back the unique unlock code for your phone via email within a couple of hours, whether or not you have had your phone for more than 10 months or meet the official requirements. I tested one just to see, and they gave me the same correct code as my carrier but much more easily and quickly. BAM. Option 3: FYI, if you have a smartphone the unlock code for your phone is often actually hidden in the phone itself, and for many android models there is a downloadable app that will extract and display your unlock code for free for you. These often do not work if you have wiped your phone and installed new bootloaders but it still won't hurt to try. Google is your friend here. These apps come with a pretty standard looking "backup your data" kind of disclaimer but I think they're not kidding- I tried a couple with no problems, but caveat emptor! Back up your data! Consider this my disclaimer of all responsibility if you find a way to gank your phone with one of these. Option 4: For many rooted Android phones (you need busybox access), there are free market apps which will flip the locked/unlocked bit on your phone. These apps can also flip the "too many guesses" bit if you ignored my advice under option 1 and tried to guess too many times, and are the only option I know of if you're in this predicament. I tried one of these and it worked like a charm, including at flipping the too many guesses bit. N.B.: Rooting your phone is a "measure twice, cut once" kind of thing and can brick your phone if done carelessly. If yours is rooted, awesome. If you're considering rooting it just becasue of this option 4, it's not a step to take lightly if messing with computers is not your idea of a good time. If you're at the Buck come talk to me and I can bore you with more details if you're considering this route. '''Appendix: '''SIM PIN vs. SIM Network unlock code. Your phone company will play on your possible confusion between these two things to waste your time on the phone with them, which is the only reason it's included here. If you're going with any option other than #1, you can ignore this bit. The thing referred to repeatedly above is the SIM network unlock code, and it is unique to an individual phone. Each phone has an identifier like the MAC address on a computer network card, called the IMEI, that's unique to that specific phone. Each IMEI has one unique SIM network unlock code, which unlocks that phone so that it can be used with a SIM card and network other than the one it was first used with. So far, so good. There is a different thing: a SIM PIN. Most SIMs, including the one already in your phone, do not have the SIM PIN set. A user can set it so that, say, a tablet computer can be used by their kids but with the phone capabilities disabled until the SIM PIN is typed in. If it was set but not by you (unlikely), the supplier of the SIM has to give it to you, and any third party overseas SIM card provider will do so cheerfully and quickly, your US carrier less so. Moreover, this SIM PIN also has an infuriating "you've guessed too many times" lockout, but unlike the lockout for the SIM network unlock code, the SIM PIN 'too many guesses' lockout is designed to be overridden, by a code called a PUK or password unlock key. If for some unforeseaable reason you've had to call someone to get the default PIN to a SIM, go ahead and make them give you its unique PUK while you're at it. Just know that neither the default SIM PIN nor the PUK is the thing you need to unlock your phone to use on other networks (you need the SIM network unlock code). However, your carrier's support people will happily try to conflate these issues if you seem uninformed, thus this appendix. Back to Visiting GDMC from the US